How did ancient Egyptian artists use animal features to portray people?

In ancient Egyptian art, the use of animal features to portray people—specifically deities and royalty—was a central convention of religious decorum and symbolism. Rather than using animal features to create caricatures in the modern sense, Egyptian artists employed these combinations to express the divine nature and power of the subject.12

The primary convention for depicting gods was to combine a human body with the head of an animal associated with that deity’s specific characteristics. For example, the goddess Bastet was frequently represented as a woman with a cat’s head, reflecting the cat's status as a symbol of divinity and protection. This practice, known as zoomorphism or theriomorphism, allowed artists to visually communicate the complex, multifaceted nature of the gods.132

Conversely, the king was often depicted using the opposite convention: a human head on an animal body, most notably in the form of the sphinx, which featured a lion’s body. These artistic choices were not intended to mock or distort the human form, but to elevate the subject by imbuing them with the symbolic attributes of the animal kingdom.12